Syracuse, N.Y. -- They skated into our midst back in the fall with rings on their fingers (if not bells on their toes) as equal parts minor-league legends and acts usually shot out of cannons. Adding to the exotica, they were also transients with bags in hands after having been deported from Virginia Beach even before the sprayed champagne in their beards had dried.

The Norfolk Admirals! Calder Cup champions! Winners down the stretch last winter of 28 consecutive games! Vagabonds on blades! Step right up, folks, and see for yourselves!

Thanks to that very-poorly-kept secret pertaining to the shift of a particular AHL franchise from one burg to another, they had landed in Syracuse as the new and instantly improved Crunch. With every intention, of course, to shock and to awe.

“Remember,” advised Jon Cooper, the head coach then and now, “we won a title in a city that we didn’t even get a chance to celebrate in. So there was a lot of anxiety going to a new place, and not by choice. In that sense, there were a lot of excuses not to do well. It’s human nature to say, ‘Hey, we accomplished it. So let’s put our heads in the sand.’

“But we challenged ourselves. We said, ‘We may not have dictated this move, but we’re not going to penalize Syracuse for it. Let’s give another city the same satisfaction we gave the previous one.’ We were a popular group when we left there and our intent was to be a popular group in this city, as well.”

Oh, they’ve become popular all right. And at the halfway mark of this wondrous season, they’ve become popular the old-fashioned way: These guys have won, and they’ve won in ornery fashion.

There are 29 other outfits in the AHL and as of Thursday afternoon not one had more victories (24) or more points (53) or more goals (131) . . . or more penalty minutes (947). So, the Crunch, at 24-8-2-3 and due back in the War Memorial on Saturday evening for a bout with the Lake Erie Monsters, have proven that it'll beat you while beating you.

And all for a reason.

“We,” declared Cooper, “are chasing a championship here.”

Given that repeating is among the most difficult things to accomplish in sports, that amounts to a heady goal for this bunch -- especially now that Keith Aulie, Cory Conacher and Pierre-Cedric Labrie have been called up to the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Crunch’s parent club that will begin play in the NHL’s latest truncated campaign over the weekend.

But . . . wait. What’s another measly Calder Cup to what had been for a few months -- hold onto your pucks, now -- the greatest hockey team on earth?

No, really. With the NHL idling at the curb during its foolish work stoppage and with all those other leagues scattered around the world, including even Russia’s famed KHL, at least a notch below the AHL, why wasn’t the Crunch -- our Crunch, in its 19th year in this town -- the best team . . . anywhere?

“That’s the headline I want to see on your story,” suggested Cooper. “Then, I could put it up on my mantel some day and look at it. But, yeah, I guess you could sit here and say that Syracuse was treated, for a short time, to the best hockey on earth. In context, you could say that, yes.”

Those giddy days are gone, sure, because the NHL’s bickering is over and the big boys have returned with both their talent and those smiles that can look like so many broken windows. But that doesn't mean that the fun is over down here on the icy farm where, don't forget, the locals have played 37 contests and have lost just eight of them in regulation.

Gulp. And gulp, again.

“This is kind of weird because what we’ve got here is a tale of two seasons,” offered Cooper. “You have the pre-lockout season and the post-lockout season. If the post-lockout season is anything like the pre-lockout season, I’m going to like where we’re going to be. The truth is, on the ice, for the most part, I couldn’t be more pleased. I couldn’t be happier with the first half.”

Naturally, things will be so much different over these next three months. As noted, Aulie, Conacher and Labrie have taken their talents to South Beach (or closer to it than we are). With the Lightning back in action, the Crunch will be altered time and again because of other call-ups. ECHL imports will come and go. Injuries can be considered near certainties. And on and on, the yin and yang of minor-league hockey.

As such, the topography may well change around here . . . if, ultimately, only a little.

“Our team identity is going to be challenged a bit,” admitted Cooper. “And our depth is going to be tested. But I’m not crying. Because of our past and our leadership, we should be all right.

“There’s no way we were ever going to say that because somebody moved this hockey team we wouldn’t win games. No way that was going to be an excuse for us. And you know what? So far, so good.”

The best team in the whole wide world just the other day, the Crunch skates on. Step right up, folks, and see for yourselves.

(Bud Poliquin’s columns and "To The Point" observations appear virtually every day on syracuse.com. His work can also be regularly found on the pages of The Post-Standard newspaper. Additionally, Poliquin can be heard weekday mornings between 10 a.m.-12 noon on the sports-talk radio show, "Bud & The Manchild," on The Score 1260-AM. Poliquin can be reached at bpoliquin@syracuse.com.)